CEAT - Centre for Early Autism Treatment - Northern Ireland

Sean's Story: By Joan, Sean's Mummy

Sean was diagnosed with autism in July 2003, when he was three years old. Sean was severely delayed with regard to his speech and language, his social, play and independent living skills. Sean's parents, Mark and Joan, were very aware that "there is very limited time in which appropriate intervention can achieve maximum effect. Early intervention is crucial in order to treat autism with optimum results. They said, "we had to act immediately." Mark and Joan looked into the various options available for early intervention and they felt comfortable with early, intensive, behavioural intervention, and felt confident it would meet Sean's needs. They contacted the London Early Autism Project (LEAP), a London-based organization that implemented and supervised early, intensive behavioural intervention programmes for children with autistic spectrum disorders.

In November 2003, Sean started to participate in a home-based intervention programme; a two day training workshop was conducted by LEAP to prepare Sean's home tutors for teaching him. When CEAT was established in Northern Ireland, his programme transition to a CEAT Consultant. CEAT was able to provide more frequent and locally based consultation. At the start of his programme Sean was very unco-operative, lacked in focus and was without speech or a functional communication system. Initially, Sean's programme targeted co-operation, attention, imitation, matching, puzzles and the understanding of simple language. Sean received 34 hours of therapy per week conducted by a team of four tutors. Sean responded well to early intervention and after a few weeks he settled nicely into acquiring new skills at a steady and reliable pace. Sean learned how to imitate action and replicate block structures, he was able to match and sort objects and pictures, he completed 20 piece puzzles and he started to understand what was being said to him.

Over the next 12 months, Sean progressed onto learning the names of familiar people, objects and actions; he was taught to imitate drawings and play skills and to identify features and functions of items. Sean became fully toilet trained. His spontaneous language increased through consistent facilitation of opportunities for requesting and commenting. Sean learning to read, write and count. Sean learned to participate in group activities, play board games and take part in imaginative play.

Sean continues to have over thirty hours of one-to-one teaching per week, with a gradual integration into a mainstream nursery classroom, where here has full-time support. Pre and Post IQ tests conducted by an Educational Psychologist indicate substantial gains in Sean's non-verbal and verbal IQ. Sean is now 10 years old, he is a happy little boy who can understand and use language with ease. He can play with toys functionally and he can sit with his peers and listen to a story being read by his teacher. He actually loves reading and is in the normal range at maths for his age. Even though Sean no longer follows a CEAT programme the skills given to him enable him to learn and enjoy life. Sean has learnt to swim and ski to a good standard and also he goes to gymnastics with the Salto Special Olympics Club where he won an Ulster title in his first competition. The most pleasing developments for his parents have been the life skills he has learned. Sean can use the bathroom unaided, shower and dry himself, make breakfast, spontaneously share, but most satisfying of all, he has made genuine friends with some of his peers. Sean continues to have many delays with regard to the comprehension and production of language and social interaction with peers. However he has made gains that significantly increase his ability to access educational opportunities and to be a part of his family along with his older and younger brother. A personal account of Sean's story is written by Joan McCartan in our March 2005 Newsletter.